Becoming Cub
by ellie ranesburg66
Summary: Jack has been deported and Alex has "disappeared" to Breacon Beacons, accompanied by Ben, when Ben leaves for a mission how will Alex survive with no one but the unit who still despises him?
1. Chapter 1

Alex lay in his bunk and stared up at the ceiling, ignoring Eagle's constant talking, Wolf's death glare, and Snake's Scottish accent echoing around the hut as he sang some American song. Ben was going to be gone for the next week so he had no one to talk to and he was bored out of his mind. Bear, who had joined the unit three months ago after Ben left for MI6, walked into the hut covered in mud and miserable.

"Damn Sergeant made me run the assault course four bloody times!" he moaned, collapsing onto the floor so he didn't get his bed muddy. Wolf and Bear were soon falling into a discussion about how awful the Sergeant was, then if there was any news of Ben, then damn secret keeping MI6, then how they hated secrets in general, then, inevitably…

"Cub, why the hell are you here? Hasn't your rich daddy gotten tired of punishing you yet?" Bear asked with a chuckle. Every time they were bored it fell to this and Alex was sick of it.

"Be a bit hard judging as he's dead." Alex said frostily, glaring daggers at them before turning his attention back to the ceiling.

K-Unit stared at him in shock, Snake was the first to recover, "God Cub! I'm so sorry, we didn't know."

Alex just shrugged, he was used to people apologizing for his parents' death, it had become standard procedure for him.

"So, you live with your mum then?" Eagle asked uncertainly, as if nervous that Alex's answer would make him feel worse.

"She's dead too." Alex said in an emotionless tone, just staring up, refusing to look at them.

"Shit Cub." Bear whispered, guilt flooding his eyes, how often had he directed rich parent cracks at the kid? A hundred? A thousand?

"Do you live with a relative?" Snake asked in horror, hoping against all hope that Cub didn't live in an orphanage.

"Used to live with my uncle, then he died. Then I lived with Jack, my housekeeper, but MI6 deported her." Alex said, pulling himself into sitting position and leaning his head against the wall.

"MI6? Why is MI6 involved with customs?"asked Eagle, confused beyond belief, why was Military Intelligence involved with what should have been Custom's job?

Alex just shrugged and turned around, he was done talking to his unit, if the conversation moved any further it would turn to his job and he didn't trust K-Unit enough to tell them about _that_. 


	2. Chapter 2

The hut was silent except for the snores of Wolf and Bear, and the light breathing of Snake. There were, of course, two others occupying the hut that night, but each were trying to be as silent as possible to avoid waking the others. It was Eagle that broke the silence, "Cub?" he whispered softly knowing that the teenager was awake, just as he was every night.

"Yeah?" Alex murmured just as softly, raising his head half off of his pillow and looking towards the soldier.

"Do you ever have….you know…nightmares?" The man asked sounding almost broken. "I do. I keep seeing them…they-they won't get out of my head."

Alex looked over at Eagle in shock, he had never seen this side of him before, he had seen the sadistic side, the prankster side, the serious side, but never the lonely frightened one.

"Who won't?" Alex asked softly, feeling way out of his depth talking about this with a man he wasn't even sure he liked.

"The men I've killed, the people I couldn't save, they all stare at me and ask me why I didn't help them. Isn't that why I became a soldier? To help people? I keep trying to apologize and they just stare and stare and stare, I just want it to stop Cub, I just want-" He broke off with a choked sob, staring desperately at Alex like he was the only one who could help him.

Then Alex realized just how alone Eagle really was, Wolf and Bear got along like a house on fire, Snake only really related to Ben and the other Unit's medics, that left Eagle by himself, acting like he was a five year old to hide how lonely he was.

Alex couldn't just leave him alone, so he walked silently over to him and sat down on his bunk.

"Those people, you almost died trying to save them and that definitely counts for something, don't forget that. No matter how much they wanted you to save them you did what you could, if you had made a choice to save them at all cost you probably would have died and more people would have too. Don't worry too much about them; it's the living ones you have to worry about." Alex said with a soft smile. How was he supposed to tell the lost looking man that the nightmares don't stop, that they varied in intensity and sometimes, mercifully, you forgot them, but they never left?

So he just patted him on the back and walked back to his bunk, oblivious to the fact that he had gained a bit of respect, no matter how small that amount was.


End file.
